Kyosei Hata

 This is Kyosei!

 This is our second year participating in the Japanese exchange student program.  We absolutely love it!  They come for just one short week and during the days they are with their school class doing their own thing but we get to entertain in the evenings and on the weekend.

 One day during the week they go to Jr. High with the kids.  This year since I have 2 kids at the Jr. High, Ethan took Kyosei around to all of his classes and Bradon was assigned to another boy.  It's such a good experience!

 We tried to do lots of fun things with Kyosei.

We took him to Trafalga fun center.  We did some rock climbing and played laser tag!

All the boys had football practice while he was here so Kyosei played a lot of soccer and whiffle ball in the backyard with Reagan and Talan.

 One night we went to the "Thank You Dinner" and program that his school put on.  We were sitting in the very back and couldn't see the program very well but we still had a good time.

 On the way back to the car Talan held Kyosei's hand.  I thought it was so cute!

This is a side note story, but on the way to the 'Thank You Dinner' Talan had fallen asleep in his car seat.  The new hit song Gangnam Style came on the radio.  I turned it up and Talan from his deep sleep, opened his red bloodshot (had been sleeping) eyes and immediately crossed his arms out in front of his body with his hands in fists and began bouncing them up and down.  You know, the Gangnam Style dance!  We all dyed laughing!  This kid has always got the moves!

 One day Kyosei announced that he wanted to fix us dinner.  We headed to the store hoping to find some off the ingredients he needed for the meal.  I was surprised that not only he wanted to cook for us, but that he knew how!

 He cooked us tamagoyaki (cooked eggs) and yakisoba (a noodle dish kind of like the chow main noodles at Panda Express).  It was all very good!  Talan eat with chopsticks.

 I always worry that our exchange student might be hungry.  They are always so polite that I worry they wouldn't say something if they were hungry.  One night just before bed Kyosei came upstairs to say goodnight.  He asked me if he could have something to drink.  I asked if he wanted milk.  Then I asked if he was hungry.  He admitted that he was hungry so I began looking for something he could eat that was quick and easy yet filling.  I looked in the pantry and say some top ramen.  I asked, "Do you want some Ramen noodle?"  You should have seen his excitement!  The poor kid was starving!  I quickly made some ramen for him and then asked, "Do you want a fork or chopsticks?"  He quickly replied, "Chopsticks!"  He sat at the island and ate his ramen in the most polite Japanese like way possible!    He held the bowl right up to his mouth shoveling the ramen in slurping all the while!  Carsten looked at me and then looked at him with this look of, Oh My Gosh!  I had to explain to Carsten that in Japan slurping is polite.  

 We took Kyosei to Salt Lake City.

We taught him how to throw a football inside Dick's sporting goods.

 Talan demonstrated!

 Bradon showed him how to try several pairs of sunglasses on at the same time.

 We went to the Apple store.

 And we went to Temple Square.

 Then later that evening we celebrated Grandma Adair's 81st Birthday!

I took Kyosei to the grocery store to pick out a birthday cake.  He picked the hamburger!

 We taught him how to give shots.

 And then we said our goodbyes!

It amazes me how quickly these little exchange students steel our hearts!  In one week they become family!  

For me one of the funnest things about kyosei's visit was getting on Google earth.  He showed us where he lived and then using the street view he showed us how he gets to the train station every morning.  It brought back a flood of memories!  Oh how I love the Japanese people and Japan!